1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to wireless modems, and more particularly to remote management of a wireless modem.
2. Background
Existing GSM modems operate, for setup and control purposes, similarly to known landline modems, such as Hayes compatible modems. Such modems generally act primarily as a transport mechanism for moving data between two devices, such as a client computer and a head-end server. In particular, the modem is configured to passively modulate data or control signals from the client computer or to passively push modulated signals through the modem to the client computer.
When a modem is initialized, it will generally run either from a default modem configuration, which is stored in the modem, or the modem will receive a special initialization configuration parameters from the client computer. The initialization configuration is performed, in either mode, to ensure that the modem is able to communicate with the client computer and, preferably, operate (as a transport) at its maximum efficiency.
FIG. 1 shows a typical communication network 100 employing a wireless modem. A laptop computer is the client computer 104. The client computer 104 is connected, for example through an RS-232 port and serial cable 106, to a GSM modem 108. In turn, the GSM modem 108 is coupled to a GSM network 112 via over-the-air interface 110. The GSM network 112 is coupled to a head-end server 116, such as an application server, via a short message service center interface 114.
As data flow 150 illustrates, when a client computer 104 tries to connect to the head-end server 116, it will first try to initialize the GSM modem 108 by passing configuration parameters directly to the GSM modem 108. For example, configuration parameters 120 are passed to the GSM modem 108 over the serial cable 106 from the client computer 104. A response 124, indicating whether the parameters were accepted, is then sent by the GSM modem 108 back to the client computer 104. Once the GSM modem 108 is initialized, it essentially becomes a slave to the client computer 104 and functions as a passive transport carrying data 128 from the client computer 104 to the head-end server 116, in addition to data 132 from the head-end server 116 to the client computer 104.
An operator independent, transparent wireless modem management system is disclosed. According to an embodiment of the invention, the modem management system comprises the steps of receiving a short message service message at the wireless modem and examining the short message service message for modem management information. If the short message service message comprises modem management information, then the wireless modem processes the short message service message.
A wireless modem is also disclosed, the wireless modem comprises electronic hardware and software for implementing a wireless protocol. A processor in the wireless modem is preferably configured to handle signals from an external device over an interface, and is also configured to handle one or more short message service messages delivered over a RF transceiver, the short message service messages comprising modem management information.